Forget the boards, boys and girls, and let's go surfing.

That seems to be the message in Australian education. In schools, further-education colleges and universities IT companies are certifying courses and sponsoring professorships in an attempt to increase uptake of their products.

There is stiff competition for customers - disguised, as elsewhere, as altruism - from Novell, Cisco systems and Microsoft. A Novell spokesperson says the payoff is not guaranteed: "You sell equipment at a loss and have to present it to institutions individually. Education is a bit fragmented, so this is not an easy thing to do.' Microsoft's 2000 IT programme is launched this month in Australia and it seems, as far as schools are concerned, to be the most generous package yet.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Education World is compiled by Janet Stafford